14 
THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
The county of Cass, which stretches westward from Fargo, is one of the 
best settled sections of the Northwest, there being no land whatever subject to 
entry. It contains some of the largest wheat farms in the world, and it has 
produced more than one wheat crop of 5,000,000 bushels. This county has an 
actual wealth of over $20,000,000, and, with its 120 school houses and number¬ 
less churches, it may be taken as admirably illustrating both the capabilities of 
the country and the character of the people who are building it up. 
At Dalrymple, eighteen miles from Fargo, and at Casselton, two miles 
farther west, are the 
GREAT WHEAT FARMS 
of Mr. Oliver Dalrymple, comprising some 50,000 acres. Continuing west¬ 
ward, we pass, in rapid succession, various flourishing settlements, among them 
being Valley City, on the Sheyenne river, the judicial seat of Barnes county. 
Presently the train descends into the valley of the James, or Dakota, river, 
and the prosperous city of Jamestown is reached. 
From this point a branch line extends northward, ninety miles, to Minne- 
waukan, at the west end of Devil’s Lake. This remarkable body of salt water, 
with its deeply indented and richly wooded shores, where the briny odor of the 
ocean mingles with the fragrance of the prairie flower, is surrounded by some 
of the best farming lands in Dakota. Its attractions for the tourist, angler and 
sportsman have obtained wide recognition, fish and game being very plentiful, 
the climate highly salubrious, the scenery picturesque, and the hotel accommo¬ 
dations good. The James river is said to be the longest unnavigable river on 
the continent, if not in the world, its flow, for hundreds of miles, being distin¬ 
guished by scarcely any perceptible increase of volume. 
Crossing a high table land, 1,850 feet above sea-level, and 950 feet higher 
than the Red river at Fargo, and known geographically as the Coteaux de 
Missouri, the train rapidly pursues its way past various large and well-managed 
farms to Bismarck, the capital of the Territory. 
This city has long commanded an important trade with various settlements 
on the Upper Missouri, the steamboats employed having transported as much as 
45,000,000 pounds of freight within a single brief period of navigation. It is 
the shipping and distributing point of a vast area whose only railroad facilities 
are those afforded by the great transcontinental line that here crosses the 
Missouri river. With the various important settlements that have been estab¬ 
lished in that great tract of country, Bismarck has either stage or steamboat 
communication. While, however, river navigation is limited to a comparatively 
short season, the stages run regularly all the year round, having even been 
known not to miss a single trip, or to be more than a few hours late, during 
an entire winter. 
But it is not the Fargos, the Jamestowns or the Bismarcks with which the 
tourist chiefly concerns himself. They attract his attention only because of 
the evidence they afford of the development and stability of the country, and 
